The present invention relates to wood and brush chippers, and more specifically to a wood chipper comprising a winch for processing wood such as brush, branches, and the like.
A variety of machines have been developed to recycle, reduce, or otherwise process wood and brush products. Included therein are machines that chip, cut, grind, or otherwise reduce waste (wood) products including, generally, chippers (disk and drum types), hammer mills, hogs, shredders, grinders, and forestry mowers.
These waste processing systems typically include an infeed system and a waste reducing system, wherein the infeed system is used for directing the waste material to the waste reducing system, the waste reducing system being used for reducing the waste material.
For example: wood chippers are used to reduce branches, trees, and other bulk wood products into small wood chips. A typical wood chipper often includes an infeed chute; a feed system which may be adapted for controlling the feed rate of wood products; a wood chipping mechanism or system; a drive system for the feed system and chipping mechanism; and a discharge chute. The infeed chute is typically a funnel-type conduit provided with a wide opening which tapers toward the feed system to converge the bulk wood/waste products toward the chipping mechanism and, through the action of the feed system, the bulk wood products are brought into contact with the chipping mechanism which grinds, flails, cuts, or otherwise reduces the wood and waste products into smaller pieces. The smaller pieces are then typically propelled into the discharge chute where they exit the wood chipper.
It is known to provide a wood chipper for chipping wood such as brush, branches, and the like to produce wood chips. An example of such a wood chipper is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,539 to Morey, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In this patent, the wood chipper includes an infeed assembly, feed wheel assembly, and a cutting assembly having a rotatable disc with at least one knife or blade for chipping the wood entering the wood chipper and reducing it to wood chips. Typically, the feed wheel assembly includes a stationary lower feed wheel connected to a lower housing and a movable upper feed wheel connected to an upper housing movable relative to the lower housing for allowing wood to enter the cutting assembly. The wood chipper also includes an engine connected to a hydraulic pump, which pumps fluid to drive hydraulic motors to rotate the feed wheels.
Other examples of such wood chippers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,032,707 to Morey et al; 6,036,125 to Morey et al; 6,016,855 to Morey; 5,988,539 to Morey; 6,000,642 to Morey; 6,722,596 to Morey; 6,357,684 to Morey; 6,830,204 to Morey; 7,121,488 to Marriott et al; 6,814,320 to Morey et al.; and 6,955,310 to Morey, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Additionally, it is known to incorporate a winch and winch line into these wood chippers system in order to assist with the pulling and/or feeding of the various wood products into the feed tray and feed wheel assembly. Generally speaking, the winch assembly is utilized to assist with the positioning and/or feeding the supply of bulk wood products to the wood chipper. This is typically accomplished by extending the winch line to the material to be processed, anchoring the winch line thereto, and then using the winch to position and/or feed the unprocessed wood to the chipper. Although these existing types of chippers have worked well, they suffer from the disadvantage that, inter alia, the winch line may become entangled in the feed wheel assembly if the winch line is extended while the feed wheel assembly is operating. As a result of this, the extended winch line can unintentionally be fed into the feed wheel assembly, and further may be fed into or captured by the cutting assembly thereby causing operational downtime and/or damage to one or more systems and components of the chipper. Furthermore, there are operational situations wherein it is desirable to operate the winch, and further even when the winch is in such an extended position, as well as operate the feed wheel system in order to, for example, assist with the feeding and positioning of the wood products to the chipper, while still mitigating, averting, avoiding, and otherwise preventing such inadvertent extended winch line being captured, retained, entangled or otherwise unnecessarily entwined within the feed and cutting systems. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide novel systems, devices, controls, and methods for wood chippers that overcome the above-identified disadvantages.
Accordingly, a need exists for novel systems and methods which have, among other advantages, the ability to reduce or prevent the winch line from becoming entangled within one or more of the infeed and reducing systems of the wood chipper, and reducing or preventing the winch line from becoming entangled in a manner that is automatic and therefore does not rely on operator intervention. Therefore, a wood chipper that solves the aforementioned disadvantages and having the aforementioned advantages is desired.